Women with early stage breast cancer have similar outcomes whether they have lumpectomy or mastectomy.

In a study of 237 women, participants were randomly assigned to either radical mastectomy - involving removal of the breast - or lumpectomy, where the tumor is removed but the breast is conserved.

After average follow up of 16 years, researchers at the National Cancer Institute in the US learned that the overall survival with mastectomy was 58 per cent and 54 per cent with lumpectomy.

Some of the women in the breast conservation group did eventually have to have a mastectomy. After accounting for this, there was no difference in the estimated rate of survival, with no recurrence of breast cancer, after 20 years, between the two groups. However, for women who had lumpectomy, ongoing vigilance is important as cancer could recur in the breast which has been saved.

Source

Cancer 15th August 2003